SNEHADEEP TRUST FOR THE DISABLED

Mission

Description of our Organisation Mission statement, founding principles, or goals. ? ABOUT SNEHADEEP Snehadeep Trust for the Disabled is a non-profit and charitable organization working towards the upliftment and betterment of the differently abled in the areas of education, computer training and soft skills. It also spreads its wings far and wide to include development of the girl child, and education and empowerment of destitute women in its agenda. MISSION STATEMENT To make the differently abled employable, thus bringing them to the main stream and to help them lead a life with dignity and economic independence. LEADING THE WAY Snehadeep Trust for the Disabled was established by 3 visually impaired graduates, with a strong will to educate the differently-abled and create opportunities for them. The backbone of the organization is the buoyancy of these three strong-minded men. The founding trustees are: Mr. Paul Muddha as its managing trustee. He envisioned the emergence of morally empowered and economically independent students from Snehadeep. He holds B.A honors from Bangalore University, MA economics from Mysore university and is credited with being the first MBA graduate among the visually challenged in Karnataka. He is working as a Manager in Canara Bank. He is the first visually challenged to get this coveted post. He has 14 years of experience in social work, especially with the blind and other challenged persons.Mr. Paul Muddha is the recipient of the National Award from his Excellency DR. APJ ABDUL KALAM in 2004 and State Award received from her Excellency the governor of Karnataka Mrs. Ramadevi in 2002 for his social service. He has taken youth to America and Europe several times for cultural and educational exchange programmes to provide exposure to the challenged persons. Mr.K. G. Mohan who holds a B.A and has undergone stenography training to teach the blind is currently working in SBI. He has a rich experience in rehabilitating differently abled persons. Mr. Sreemann Narayan B.G (B.Com, M.A in Philosophy, PGDPM in PMBA, BMIR, IOPM, IRLL, EMMHrd and AMIBM). He is working as a senior Labor inspector and conciliation officer for the Government of Karnataka, having hands-on experience as an enforcement officer under various labor laws especially child labor, rehabilitation of drop out child labor and providing security for the working class. He has received the national award from her excellency smt. Prathibha Patil in 2009. Apart from the trustees, the trust has to its credit many eminent personalities to assist and guide the trust in many of its programmes from time to time. CURRENT PROGRAMMES Snehadeep currently provides education to 100 differently abled students under the Integrated Education Programme. The Free Residential Computer Training Programme to the visually and physically challenged trains 36 students/youths. Under this programme, the students are taught computer training, English communication, leadership qualities, carrier guidance, motivational subjects and confidence building. It goes one step further to even identify suitable jobs for students according to their aptitude after the completion of the course. INCORPORATING TECHNOLOGY Snehadeep is well-versed with JAWS [Job access with speech], a screen reading software that is used to facilitate the visually challenged to learn computers. OTHER ACTIVITIES Snehadeep considers it its moral responsibility to be a diligent and pervasive support to the specially challenged. It has conducted several seminars on the burning issues facing them. The recent seminar was on the Disability Act where it recommended 52 amendments to the act through the governor of state [Karnataka]. Snehadeep also takes initiative to conduct health camps, particularly Eye Check up Camps to better the vision of the blind and instill a ray of hope among them. This year alone, 50 eye operations have been conducted, in addition to providing corrective lenses and vision to 6 students. ACHIEVEMENTS Snehadeep has empowered and placed 13 candidates in good jobs in a short span. They consider Snehadeep their Alma Mater and elixir of life. Organised a seminar on mobility which led to the installation of music bells in traffic signals all over Bangalore leading to better mobility for the visually impaired Organised a seminar on changes in the Persons with disability act which led to the formation of a new drafting committee for the act which is under consideration for amendment and soon a new act willl come in force Organised hands on training to tackle competitive exams and two students cleared the exam to join State bank of Mysore. VISION FOR THE FUTURE So far we have been carrying out all these activities with limited resources and have progressed in providing employment to the trained candidates and educating the children. We are determined to expand the activities to more number of beneficiaries in the months to come. The primary goal of establishing Snehadeep was to provide food, shelter, education, training & employment for the visually impaired and physically challenged. However it has developed a more comprehensive vision over the years: 1. To create awareness about the needs & abilities of the differently abled through seminars & social events. 2. Setting up placement & vocational training cells 3. Encouraging sports & cultural activities. 4. To expand IED scheme to provide non-residential services to students to pursue education. 5. In the long-run Snehadeep seeks to become a profit centre only to ensure sustainability.

Programs

Describe the programs that your organization conducts, overseas, or administers.? Free Residential Computer Training Programme for the visually and physically challenged Snehadeep Trust has established a free residential IT cell to educate visually challenged students in the use of computers. The idea is to enable them to use JAWS (screen reading software) and Kurzweil (an OCR), as tools for their studies to gather information pertaining to various subjects and be conversant with computer and internet skills. This is done through a range of hardware and software components like sound blaster cards, screen readers and scanners. The basic idea in launching this Cell is not only to impart basic skills to the physically challenged but also focus on overall development. The resource centre would act as a finishing school for the differently abled students from rural background & make them employable. The current facilities are catering to 45 residential students. The proposed project intends to provide additional coaching to 100 differently abled students from Government / Aided schools in Bangalore through IED - Integrated Education for the disabled. . Organizing Seminars/workshops to create awareness & address the issues / rights of persons with disability. Justification Knowledge of IT provides the visually impaired an opportunity to integrate into society. This is possible, due to the capability of access technology based on IT to provide voice and tactile output. Thus, IT is able to substitute the visual signals of traditional ways of doing things, into forms of output more convenient for the visually impaired. This is done through a range of hardware and software components like sound blaster cards, screen readers and scanners. Such opportunities thrown up by IT for the visually impaired are in the following areas: Career Education & Information Personal life Career Opportunities Access to technology provided by IT ensures that the visually impaired can easily integrate into the work force. The kind of career that IT enables the visually impaired to get into can be summarized into 2 categories: IT related careers like Technical Writing, Non- IT careers ranging from managers, social workers Opportunities for Education & Access to Information Many books today are available in CD or DVD formats. These soft copies of books can be easily accessed by the visually impaired through voice or Braille output. SNEHADEEP is also wish to start Digital Voice recording studio to convert text in to speech format using software called DAISY. Opportunities to Enhance Quality of Personal Life Tasks done in personal life like sending letters, sending emails and keeping accounts and diaries are made convenient for the visually impaired due to the availability of access technology. IT Threats, for the Visually Challenged. The world is going through a knowledge revolution today. IT is the main engine for this revolution. Unlike such revolutions in the past like the agrarian or the industrial revolution, social groups not participating in the revolution are likely to be marginalized.. So, in the context of the knowledge revolution, if the visually impaired do not know about IT, they could be further marginalized in society. Thus, knowledge of IT provides for tremendous opportunities for the visually impaired. Objective and Results Expected The objective of the centre is to empower the visually impaired through IT training. The results expected from the endeavour are: Smoother education for students. Placement opportunity for the unemployed. Different career tracks for the already employed. Capability to manage daily tasks better. Course Content of Training Programmes The training programme would have 2 modules: Basic Training: The Basic training on access technologies would ensure that a person is able to perform routine tasks for one's personal life and productively integrate into non-IT careers based upon the skill set they already possess. Advanced Training Programme: The advanced training programme is meant for those visually impaired people who want to get into IT related careers. Such a programme would be given for those who perform well in the basic training programme and show the aptitude for IT. Such programmes would execute on the basis of the demand of the market at a particular point in time. Segments of Training The training programme would be addressed at 3 segments. Such a segmentation has been done based upon the need for ensuring homogeneity of training batches in terms of aptitude, timing of classes and needs of the group. The 3 segments that have been identified are: Graduate Employees, who want career advancement. Unemployed Graduates, who would like to get a job based upon basic IT skills. Students, who would like to use IT as a tool in their education. Goals of the training program The goals of this programme is Four fold - 1. Imparting basic computer skills 2. Train visually impaired into using computers comfortably in whichever field they would be pursuing. 3. Try and absorb the trained visually or physically challenged in the organization and other Governmental and Corporate sectors within the state itself if an opening exists. 4. To facilitate the trained disabled to set up a CD Library and Information centre. Project Plan The computer training not only creates job opportunities for the visually impaired but also helps in expanding the resources base namely more physically challenged could be trained to use computers as a necessary tool in this age of electronic revolution. They could also use the PC's to scan their texts and use JAWS to study them. Hence the first step in the training program is teaching them key-board orientation.. To create opportunities for the visually and physically challenged, Snehadeep has an ambitious plan to impart soft skills, computer training along with career guidance to 1000 differently-abled persons across Karnataka in the next 3-4 years. Integrated Education Programme to the high school challenged children Snehadeep focusses on education to the under privillaged and challenged children and with a special focus on the education of the girl child. Apart from running a free residential computer training to the visually and physically challenged, snehadeep also runs a non residential teaching service to the disabled children under witch disable children who are visually, physically, hearing impaired, mentally challenged along with slow learners are provided with education, teaching of brail, mobility, and sign language. For this purpose teachers have been appointed who have under gone special training to teach these challenged children. Snehadeep takes full responsibility of these children's education right from identification of disability, getting suitable medical certificate from the authorised hospitals, getting schools near to their homes and providing teaching services along with aids and equipments like uniforms, books, bags, stationary, wheel chairs to the orthopedic handicapped, hearing aids to the hearing impaired, glasses to the low vision, mobility canes to the visually challenged, braillers to take down notes in braille, tape recorders/cd players/voice recorders to record lessons and suitable teaching aids and kit to the mentally challenged. Higher Education to the disabled students Snehadeep emphasises on the education to the college students. Its provides free residential facilities both boarding and lodging part from providing required aids and equipments to persue their education. Around 25 students go to regular colleges in and around Bangalore and use public transport to travel. Along with thieir education, Snehadeep provides extra coachings to provide classes to compete in many competetive examinations including public sector banks. We take pleasure to inform that already 6 students have been selected to various public sector banks in 2010-11. Our gratitude to all the volunteers for contributing their valuable time and energy in providing services to all our students.

Statistics on SNEHADEEP TRUST FOR THE DISABLED

• Projects on GlobalGiving: 0
• Founded: 1999